7th Grade Teacher Resource Guide Sea Lions are part of a complex ecosystem that is impacted Theme: by human activities. Sustainable Seafood, Marine Debris, Plastic Pollution Critical Issue: Lesson 1: Family Matters . 3 Contents: Lesson 2: The Food Web Game . 7 Lesson 3: Sea Lion Inquiry . 20 Lesson 4: Ban the Bag . 30 Resources . 35 a division of Embarcadero at Beach St, San Francisco, CA 94133 | 415.623.5300 | aquariumofthebay.org 1 Aquarium of the Bay’s Education and Conservation mission statement: Department’s mission is to promote literacy in ocean and watershed health, climate change issues, and science career development through the lens of critical issues such as sustainable seafood, marine protected areas, marine debris and plastics, climate change and fresh water flows. Aquarium of the Bay thanks the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation acknowledgements: for their generous support for our K-12 programs and development of this Teacher Resource Guide. 2 Family Matters Enduring Understanding: Groups of animals, such as sea lions, can be classified into groups, such as lesson 1 pinnipeds, according to their various features. Materials Setup: • Poster paper 1. Prepare the art materials. • Pens, markers, pencils • 5 spoons of different types (i.e., wooden program outline: spoon, ladle, ice cream scoop) How do we classify things in the natural world? • With this activity, you will demonstrate the classification of animal families by using the classification of spoons as an analogy - Hold up a regular spoon and ask students to talk about its features as if they were describing it to someone who had never seen a spoon before. - Take out the next spoon. How is this one different? How is it the same? - Do this for each of the remaining spoons (the more different the spoons, the better the message will get across). o Ask students if they would call each of these a spoon. o Do they all belong to the same group of utensils? o Do they have different uses? o Why is it important to be able to differentiate among them? - Classifying spoons is similar to the way in which we classify animals. - We identify the features that make them different in order to group them into different families. - This makes it easier to talk about, learn about, and study them. What is a pinniped? • Pinnipeds are marine mammals that are “flipper footed,” having both back and front flippers, and belong to the monophylum Pinnipedia, which includes seals, sea lions, and walruses. 3 program outline continued: • There are three families of pinnipeds: Phocids (seals), Otariids (sea lions and fur seals), and Odobenids (walruses). - Each of these families has distinct characteristics that allow it to be classified into a specific group. - Go over these characteristics with the students. Show them pictures so they can see the physical differences between families (see “Pinniped Identification” in program materials). - As animals evolve over time they develop different characteristics that allow them to adapt to their specific environments. - The three pinniped families all share a common ancestor but have evolved in slightly different ways with slightly different adaptations that allow them to be successful. Students will create their own classification chart with the three families of pinnipeds on a large piece of paper. • They should include the details needed to distinguish the groups from one another. They may draw pictures, if they like, or use written words. • Students can be creative in the way they design their chart so long as it is clear that Phocids, Otariids, and Odobenids are all families of the monophylum Pinnipedia. • If students finish quickly and want to add even more detail, they can research the subfamilies within each of the pinniped families, as well as the suborder Caniformia and the order Carnivora, to which pinnipeds belong. Once students are done, their charts can be displayed around the room so that others can view them. Further questions to explore include: • Can you think of any other items that are grouped together but have distinct differences and subsets within those groups? (i.e., shoes, tables, chairs—pretty much anything!) • What other animal families can you think of that include various subspecies? • To what family do humans belong? What other animals are closely related to humans? - What makes us different from other primates? - What makes us the same as other primates? 4 teacher background: Biological Classification Biological classification is a way of categorizing organisms that share similar characteristics into groups, such as genus or species, called taxa (the singular of which is taxon). From the largest to the smallest, the eight main taxonomic ranks used in this biological hierarchy include life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. These groupings are rooted in the idea that groups of living things share common ancestors and evolve from these ancestors into distinct species over time as the biological populations change over successive generations. Pinnipedia The monophylum (or clade) Pinnipedia contains three families: the Phocid family (true seals), the Otariid family (sea lions and fur seals), and the Odobenid family (walruses). Pinnipeds are named for their large fin-like flippers; the word “Pinnipedia” comes from Latin and means “feather or fin foot.” Pinnipedia belongs to the suborder Caniformia, meaning “dog-like,” which in turn belongs to the order Carnivora, meaning “to devour.” The order Carnivora also includes more than 280 other species of animals. Pinnipeds in general are somewhat clumsy on land but agile and graceful in the water. A clear membrane that acts as a second eyelid allows them to open their eyes underwater. They are able to hold their breath for up to two hours at a time. Their blubber keeps them insulated and warm in cold ocean waters, and they absorb heat by basking in the sunlight when on land. Pinnipeds that live in warmer areas stay cool by resting in tidal pools and shady areas on land. All pinnipeds are carnivores and eat a variety of other marine life, such as fish, squid, octopuses, penguins, and many marine invertebrates. The Families The Phocid family is the most diverse group of pinnipeds and consists of animals that are considered true seals. True seals have ear holes but no visible external ear flap. Their front flippers are small. They move on land by undulating on their stomachs. When swimming, they use their back flippers like a fish’s tail. Despite their name, fur seals actually belong to the Otariid family and are not considered true seals. The Otariid family (also known as eared seals) consists of sea lions and fur seals, both of which are recognizable by their external ear flaps and large front flippers. On land they use all four flippers to walk, and at sea they use their large front flippers like oars to swim. They are well suited to cold temperatures, with both blubber and a fur coat to keep them warm. Fur seals can be distinguished from sea lions by their longer flippers and thicker coats. The Odobenid family has only one living member: the walrus. Walruses have no external ear flaps, like seals, but they can rotate their hind flippers forward and walk on all fours, like sea lions. Another easy way to recognize them is by their tusks, which both males and females have. Walruses are big and bulky. They are one of the larger pinnipeds, though they are still smaller than two species of 5 glossary: Pinnipeds: Diverse group of “flipper-footed,” semiaquatic marine mammals with front and hind flippers; well adapted to swimming Taxon: Group of organisms Monophylum (also known as clade): Group of organisms including an ancestor species and all its descendants; characterized by shared derived characteristics Family: Taxonomic group classified by their shared attributes Family Phocidae: Family of true seals, with small front flippers and no external ear flap Family Otariidae: Family of fur seals and sea lions, with large front flippers and external ear flaps Family Odobenidae: Family of walruses, which can rotate their hind flippers forward and walk on all fours; have no external ear flaps 7th grade standards: California Science Content Standards • 3.d. Students know how to construct a simple branching diagram to classify living groups of organisms by shared derived characteristics and how to expand the diagram to include fossil organisms. California Next Generation Science Standards • MS-LS4-2. Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships. - Anatomical similarities and differences between various organisms living today and between them and organisms in the fossil record enable the reconstruction of evolutionary history and the inference of lines of evolutionary descent. program materials: • Pinniped identification pictures 6 Name: ___________________ Date: ____________________ Pinniped Identification Sea Lions (Otariids) • visible external ear flaps • large front flippers • walk on land using all four flippers Photo A Photo B Fur Seals (Otariids) • visible external ear flaps • large front flippers • walk on land using all four flippers Photo C Photo D 7 Name: ___________________ Date: ____________________ Pinniped Identification continued True Seals (Phocids) • no visible external ear flaps • small front flippers • move on land by flopping on their bellies Photo E Photo F Walruses (Odobenids) • tusks on males and females • no visible external ear flaps • walk on land using all four flippers Photo G Photo H 8 Pinniped Identification Photo Credits Photo A: Kobe Oji Zoo, April 22, 2009 by Corpse Reviver (own work); Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - Kobe oji zoo 2009 April 22 Photo B: Karamash at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons Photo C: “Galapagos Fur Seal, Santiago Island” by D.